They Tell us to Shoot Low

A Story by Luke Iandoli

Not sure

People constantly ask me why I am so gloomy and cynical. I usually answer with nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. I am still asked why my writing is so dreary, or why I constantly bombard anything happy with comments from my own gray mind. Lately I’ve asked myself this question. Why am I such a pretentiously cynic human being. The only answer I can give to these inquiries is “my upbringing”. I come from a small hick republican town. It’s quite poor and uninspiring. I grew up there with my own friend group. They were all good kids, and most of them were a hell of a lot intelligent than me, however, that’s another story. This of course is me trying to explain to no one more than myself why I am such a snobbish downer jerk.

My bleak outlook of the world begin in the eighth grade. At that time I spent most of my days listening to music and attempting to achieve a level of personal fitness, which would result in me receiving attention from girls who, in hindsight, were much more attractive than me. My life revolved around the opposite sex and I made many attempts to be noticed by them. The point I am trying to make is, my mind then was quite miniscule and could not comprehend the mysteries of life. I believed that the world, in a stunning turn of events, had taken my side. This surreal state of beautiful denial was smashed by one sentence uttered by my eighth grade science teacher.

My teacher at that time was a woman called Mrs. Pelet. Mrs. Pelet, in truth, was not very smart. She struggled to teach the subject which she had gotten a the job for. She didn’t know too much of science and once she stated that solar is in fact, bad for the environment. Needless to say, she was a horrendous teacher. I spent that entire year watching the clock turn and waiting for the bell.

About half way through the year, she gave us all what she said was life saving advice. She told us that we should abandon all hopes of a prosperous future and shoot low. She told us that we were all speeding towards a life of mediocrity. This had me in shambles. For the remainder of the year I questioned everything. My disposition slowly started to take a turn for the worse.

You may be wondering how words from a teacher I had no respect for could have such a lasting impact. I have no answer for any inquisitions which stem from that thought. I have not the faintest clue why this has stuck with me for so long. I advise you not to ponder on it for too long.